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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 15 Apr 2022.
Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2010-4345

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2010-12-14
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 4.72 or later.
See remediation →
96/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild Public exploit Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Exim 4.72 and earlier allows local users to gain privileges by leveraging the ability of the exim user account to specify an alternate configuration file with a directive that contains arbitrary commands, as demonstrated by the spool_directory directive.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

Local privilege escalation vulnerability in Exim 4.72 and earlier where the exim unprivileged user can specify an alternate configuration file containing arbitrary commands via the spool_directory directive, allowing privilege escalation to root or other privileged accounts.

MitigationUpgrade Exim to a version newer than 4.72, or restrict the exim user's ability to specify alternate configuration files with dangerous directives like spool_directory.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 5.0
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 6.06= 8.04= 9.10= 10.04= 10.10
EximApplication
Affected:<= 4.72
OpensuseOperating system
Affected:= 11.1= 11.2= 11.3

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check installed Exim version
    Run 'exim --version' or 'dpkg -l exim4' (Debian/Ubuntu) or 'rpm -q exim' (openSUSE) to find the version number
    Affected if Version is 4.72 or lower
  2. Identify the Exim configuration file in use
    Check /etc/exim/exim.conf or /etc/exim4/exim4.conf for the primary configuration file path, then review if alternate config files can be specified via command line or environment
    Affected if The exim user can specify a custom configuration file via -C flag or similar mechanism
  3. Review configuration for spool_directory directive
    Search all exim configuration files (including any alternate or user-controlled configs) for 'spool_directory' entries using 'grep -r spool_directory /etc/exim*'
    Affected if A spool_directory directive exists in any accessible configuration file that the exim user can influence
  4. Verify exim process runs as unprivileged user
    Check the running exim process user with 'ps aux | grep exim' or look at /etc/passwd for exim user entry
    Affected if Exim runs as a dedicated unprivileged user (typical setup) and that user has write access to any configuration file

You are affected if Exim version is 4.72 or earlier AND the exim unprivileged user can influence or specify an alternate configuration file containing the spool_directory directive.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 4.72
Vendor patch bugs.exim.org →
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Exim to a version newer than 4.72, or restrict the exim user's ability to specify alternate configuration files with dangerous directives like spool_directory.

Recommended fix High confidence

Exim 4.73 or later stable release

  1. 1. Check the current Exim version installed: dpkg -l | grep exim or rpm -q exim
  2. 2. For Debian 5.0: Update package lists with 'apt-get update' and upgrade Exim: 'apt-get install exim4'
  3. 3. For Ubuntu 6.06/8.04/9.10/10.04: Run 'apt-get update' followed by 'apt-get install exim4'
  4. 4. For OpenSUSE 11.1/11.2/11.3: Run 'zypper update exim' or 'zypper in -t patch exim'
  5. 5. Verify the upgraded version is 4.73 or higher: exim -v -bV
  6. 6. Restart the Exim service: service exim4 restart (Debian/Ubuntu) or rcexim restart (OpenSUSE)
  7. 7. Confirm the configuration file permissions are appropriate (640 for exim.conf, owned by root)
Caveat Review exim.conf for any version-specific directives; configuration syntax changes between 4.72 and 4.73 are minimal but test configurations before production deployment

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Debian Linux Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2010-4345 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data